Money Matters – Susie Strauss

April 6, 2016April 1, 2018

Change It Up

I thought it was a pretty good April Fools joke a few days ago when Justin told me that he had bought a new guitar, and showed it to me. I just about freaked out because money has been way too tight to even think about buying a new guitar! He let me rant and rave for a few minutes before showing me that it wasn’t a new guitar – it was his old one, with a new pick guard on it! I was embarrassed, but relieved, and that is the truth!

Have you ever looked at the price of guitars? And seen how many different types there are? Sometimes Justin and I go to the local guitar stores and look at what they have. He and I have about the same taste in color and style. But there is so much more to it than just looking good. It has to sounds good, and you have to know what sound suits your style of playing before you can pick out a new guitar.

October 30, 2015

Assisted Living: Pros and Cons

There comes a point in life when many people have to decide on whether to continue living independently, or transitioning to an assisted living facility. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, and it’s best to consider these before making what can be a life changing decision. Weighing the pros and cons is important.

Assisted living services for seniors can provide a number of benefits. One of those is flexibility. As we age, our bodies change, and so do our needs. Properly staffed facilities can help us at any stage of life. These facilities often have staff on hand that can make expert decisions on our health and give proper advice on conditions that could be considered ‘red flags.’ This staff is available full time, which means in emergencies, people can trust that they will receive critical attention.

There are a few cons, of course. The biggest concern people have is costs. Assisted living requires early planning on the part of a person so that they can afford the month to month costs. These costs can also increase as a person’s needs increase with age. For these reasons, it’s best to start making economic preparations sooner rather than later.

September 29, 2015

Unique Wedding Favors and Making Them Special

I know I posted about wedding favors already but I wanted to keep going and share a little bit more about them. You really can offer your guests unique wedding favors. Surprise your guests with something they have never seen before. Maybe give them something that will bring a laugh or smile to their face.

Unique wedding favors tell the guests something about the couple. Give your friends and family a personalized calculator and they might think you are trying to help them balance a budget. If you give them a bag of Jordan almonds they will know that you wanted to offer them a tasty treat. Even further, share with your guests a scented and monogrammed candle and your guests can relax in the luxury of their home to the lovely aroma your flavor provides.

Your wedding favors can even enhance your wedding theme. For example, say you have a destination wedding, maybe you could pack little acrylic suitcases with a tasty treat. If you have an outdoor wedding, think about providing your guests with a small picnic basket to remember the occasion. A cute idea for a Las Vegas wedding could be to pick up some toy coin machines that you personalize. There truly is a unique wedding favor for every taste and style.

August 28, 2015

Buying Used Musical Instruments

When Jim was telling me that he was thinking about buying a used musical instrument, I was a little concerned that he might regret that. I hate to admit that I am so suspicious about buying things that are used, but I have had some bad experiences with things that break down the moment I get them! But when Jim told me that he was being really careful, and trying to find what he wants through the selection of instruments through the musiciansfriend used selection, I felt a little better. I would imagine that the business would probably check them over pretty well before selling them.

February 17, 2015

The Internet offers consumers different ways to order things

I don’t know about you, but sometimes when I go shopping online I am uncomfortable filling out an order form that requires my credit card information. With all of the recent publicity about hackers getting into systems through the Internet, I find more and more that I would appreciate finding the item I want to purchase, and then actually placing the order with a phone call. So I was relieved when I was thinking about buying something from the musician’s friend website to see “To place your order, call us toll-free at 800-449-9128” as an option for ordering. I think in this day and age, this is a little bit more secure than sending the information electronically. What do you think?

October 22, 2014

Shop Smart

Whenever making a purchase of an item that I plan to use for a long time, I try to perform what my engineering son likes to call “due diligence.” By that, I mean I will spend quite a bit of time finding out as much as I can about the product. I want to “shop smart” so as to not waste my money on a product that will not perform the way I want it to perform. I will try to find, and Read Full Review material on the product, do some comparison shopping online for it, and even check and see if there have been any complaints or recalls on the item.

In this day and age, I also try to buy American-made products, to support our economy. If we don’t help keep our country working, our taxes will end up going up to support the unemployed! And between you and me, I’d rather not join the ranks of the unemployed, so I always try to keep that in mind as well!

October 18, 2014

Warranties Are Important

Sometimes when I talk to my friends and family about things they are buying online, I get the impression that they don’t even take the time to view fine print about warranties and whether or not they can purchase a maintenance agreement. Such was the case when Marcel was telling me that he was thinking about buying a dbx ZonePRO 640 Speaker Processor from an Internet retailer. I asked him if he had checked out how long the warranty was on the product, and he told me he had not. What is wrong with people nowadays? You should always find out that information!

August 22, 2014

Technology Changing So Quickly

Thinking back to when I was a young child, my parents had analog telephones scattered throughout the house. They started with one incoming telephone line, then when my sisters and I were teenagers and hogging the phone talking to all our friends, they got a second incoming line for us girls. Then we started getting online which tied up the phone line and no one could call us without getting a busy signal. So they got a third phone line – primarily for internet but also a backup line for us girls. After all, three teenage girls can do a whole lot of talking on the phone, between their girlfriends AND their boyfriends!

But now, we’ve grown and moved out, we all have cell phones and we get online using cable instead of the telephone line. So my parents decided to give up the home phone line and save $50 a month. I don’t blame them!

Another big technology change has been instant messaging and texting. What a great convenience that is! Especially when you just need to push a message to someone and not really talk to them or engage in a 2-way communication. I use texting all the time with my sisters and my parents, and I love the way they can get in touch with me any time, even if I am on the phone and on the internet, all through my cell phone.

I just love how technology is changing so quickly. Now if they will just start reducing the monthly charges. I don’t see how they can justify these high prices for phone service any longer – they are not spending money on expensive phone lines and cables – it’s all digital.

May 23, 2014

Saving and Spending

So I decided that I wanted to take the family on a nice vacation this year but, realized I needed to take a look at our finances first. I’ve always had an idea of how much we spend on everything, but never really had a budget that was written down. In order to get a realistic idea of what we’re saving and spending, I thought maybe I should track everything.

I looked up free budget software online to get started. After all, I’m trying to save and I don’t want to shill out more money in all of this. At first I thought I would be overwhelmed. I watched a few video demos on how easy the software programs are to use. Some programs wanted a ton of information and others looked just like a spread sheet. I already have spread sheet software… that’s not what I was looking for.

I looked at reviews for best budgeting sites to get opinions of what other people thought worked and didn’t for them. I’ve narrowed it down to three different sites. I think just to get a good idea of what each site can do for me I’ll use them each for the next two months. At the end of the two months I should be able to tell which software will work best for me in the long run.

I can’t wait to see where our money is actually going. I wonder if I’ll find that it hasn’t been going where I thought it had been this whole time. No matter where it’s going I want to save so that we can afford a nice vacation. Budgeting here we come!

May 17, 2014

Hello new car goodbye old car

My neighbor came over yesterday and told me that they wanted to buy a new car. They’ve been looking into sedans and suvs. She wants something that has plenty of space, good gas mileage and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. She told me they are going to send their old car on an auto transport to their son in California.

I asked her why she was going to ship it instead of driving it across the country. Apparently with the price of gasoline car shipping is actually cheaper than driving it yourself. If she were to drive it she would not only have gas fees, but also fees for hotel stays and food. These additional costs can add up quickly.

I bet her son is going to be thrilled when he goes to pick up the car from the car transport pick up location only 5 miles from his house. He’s been without reliable transportation ever since he got laid off last fall. My neighbor, Karen, is happy to help him and she gets a new car out of the deal too!